Recently there has been renewed attemps to increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines of the type which conventionally power motor vehicles in order that these engines may afford greater fuel mileage.
One method pursued in increasing the fuel economy of an internal combustion engine is to provide structure whereby the air entering the induction passage of the engine may be electrically charged, either negatively or positively, and the fuel discharged into the induction passage may be electrically charged either positively or negatively, respectively. By subjecting the air and fuel with opposite charges and thus ionizing the initial mixture of air and fuel, the tendency of the fuel to mix more thoroughly with the air is increased so as to result in a more readily combustible mixture.
The examples of apparatuses previously designed for this purpose are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,873,746, 2,839,037, 3,110,294, 3,266,783, 3,476,095, 3,537,829 and 3,761,062.